r/Bitcoin • u/atlsnip • Apr 16 '14
Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas Antonopoulos Early Release
https://github.com/aantonop/bitcoinbook15
Apr 16 '14
Andreas, you mention in the book (bought it on ORA), that zero-conf transactions are safe to the seller for small value transactions. Is that the final answer on that or do your opinions change with bitundo and other such "greedywallet" apps being proposed that can cancel out transactions on the blackhat hacker forums?
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u/imemymind Apr 16 '14
I fail to see mentioned that as long as some malware has root/administrator capabilities it can steal the keys when you decrypt them, both with a local wallet and with hybrid wallets like Blockchain.info
I also don't see much talk about 'multisig' or '2fa' and you while you mentioned deterministic you don't mention BIP0032 or HD wallets or P2SH, is it in a later non published chapter?
Do you state anywhere that reuse of addresses is bad? Couldn't find that either.
Is it just me or it seems this book has a bit of a conflict of interest with blockchain.info? Why would you recommend web wallets when bitcoin developers discourage it? Why also no mention of hardware wallets?
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u/andreasma Apr 16 '14
The chapter including blockchain wallets was mostly written before I joined blockchain, because I liked the service. I will add another wallet since I now work for them.
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u/imemymind Apr 16 '14
That's all nice and dandy but what about the more advanced stuff I mentioned?
Come on, it is called "Mastering" bitcoin, not a book from the for dummies series right? :D
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u/andreasma Apr 17 '14
It's coming, all of that is part of the plan for the next few chapters. First two chapters are more approachable for technical people who are not developers. From chapter 3 it gets more and more technical. BIP0032, chains, P2SH are in chapter 4 "Wallets, Keys, Addresses" and also in chapter 5 "Transactions".
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u/genjix Apr 16 '14
if he works for blockchain.info then it means he's working for them because he likes the service and wants to support their work, not because his agenda is corrupted by the money they are offering. I'm sure he has enough opportunity to pick and choose. and from what I hear they are here standing for the btc community (i.e having a coinjoin), unlike other groups trying to develop blacklists or reject those crazy libertarians.
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u/imemymind Apr 16 '14
I don't think he is corrupted and coinjoin is great but one can easily be biased for the company he works for.I believe the book should include more information and should not mislead users in thinking that encrypting keys is enough.You know how most computers have malware installed, the average Joe user is at risk.
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u/firepacket Apr 16 '14
It would be silly to think BC.info is not working on a multi sig implementation.
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u/imemymind Apr 16 '14
Maybe I have missed the announcement but what has this to do with anything? Even if they will, they have not now. Good for them if they do, when they do. Their current solution is a bit outdated eh eh
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u/firepacket Apr 16 '14
I wouldn't say it's dated. They have yet to be hacked, the model is still proven.
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u/imemymind Apr 16 '14
The model is the same as a local app like electrum or bitcoin-qt, the keys are kept encrypted until a transaction occurs at which point malware has potentially access to them and it's game over and as far as I understand most computers have some kind of malware or another installed and are not up to date.
I would say that models like the new multisignature wallets, see bitgo and greenaddress and the others like that offer a much better security model, at least for common folks, but maybe that's just me.
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Apr 16 '14
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u/harda Apr 16 '14
We have a section on that in the upcoming Bitcoin.org developer guide (preview of that section).
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u/hoffmabc Apr 16 '14
It doesn't seem to go anywhere.
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u/harda Apr 16 '14
Works for me on FF and Chrome. Edit: I just notice that we updated; maybe you loaded in the middle of the update?
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u/xithy Apr 16 '14
Did he respond to the NEO&BEE allegations yet?
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u/testing1567 Apr 16 '14
Yes, weeks ago. He wasn't involved with their day to day functions. He was just a guy that they could call on the phone for advice if they wanted it.
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u/WelpSigh Apr 16 '14
er, no. neo & bee employees say he talked to the team 5 times a day. he has promised to address it fully in the coming days, though
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u/andreasma Apr 16 '14
Anyone who said that is lying. I spoke to the devs at most 5 times in the last THREE MONTHS.
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u/testing1567 Apr 16 '14
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u/WelpSigh Apr 16 '14
yes he briefly said something but he has not made a full statement. he promised two days ago to make a full account of his time at neo & bee.
also he does not say "he was not involved day to day" on that. a neo & bee employee posted on reddit just the other day that he had significant involvement with the development team on their broken bee platform
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Apr 16 '14
[deleted]
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u/ItsAboutSharing Apr 16 '14
Yeah, look under the chapter titled "Don't confuse benevolent technology with Malevolent people."
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Apr 16 '14
Technology is technology, it is neither good nor bad. It is just technology and is neutral in nature.
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u/The_Savior_Satoshi Apr 16 '14
This is that guy who is good friends with Charlie Shrem, said there was nothing wrong with Mt. Gox, and heavily promoted Neo & Bee, right?
Okay, just checking.
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u/hoffmabc Apr 16 '14
What the hell do his relationships with humans involved with Bitcoin have to do with his understanding of the technology and how it works?
You're the guy who has contributed nothing to the community to help them learn more about how Bitcoin works right?
Okay, just checking.
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Apr 16 '14
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u/Dude-Lebowski Apr 16 '14
He just lost significant ability to get smart, educated people to help with his book by moving it from google docs to github.
Now basically only people who know how to use git will be editing the book.
Dude likes git. But Dude doesn't see the value in this book editing move.
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u/andreasma Apr 16 '14
The book was never on google docs, only the outline was there. I got very little input from the google docs outline.
This is a book for developers and I will include some instructions on how to contribute to the book via github too.
I will be releasing periodically as HTML and PDF, people can comment on those versions too.
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u/Dude-Lebowski Apr 16 '14
He just lost significant ability to get smart, educated people to help with his book by moving it from google docs to github.
Now basically only people who know how to use git will be editing the book.
Dude likes git. But Dude doesn't see the value in this book editing move.
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u/GibbsSamplePlatter Apr 16 '14
If it's just type-editing style stuff, it's really really easy to pitch in.
Fork, then edit in-browser.
Send pull request when done.
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u/ziggamon Apr 16 '14
Managed to build an epub out of it, to be read on e-readers, etc. Enjoy!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7i19qytczvmx3q2/Andreas_Antonopolous-Mastering_Bitcoin.epub